1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to decorated transparent objects such as glassware and methods of making same and particularly to cylindrical glassware such as tumblers and the like having a design with three dimensional visual perception.
Decorative designs on glassware have been utilized for quite some time. For instance, surfaces of tumblers have been decorated with designs formed in the glass by cutting, sand and shot blasting, etching with suitable compounds and solutions and by painting the surfaces with a variety of paints and other substances. Other processes have been used for accomplishing the decoration of such items.
An interesting application of tumbler decoration is included in U.S. Pat. No. 3,874,977 (Pyles) wherein a pair of separate designs are imprinted around the circumference of a glass cylinder, one on top of the other, and separated from one another by a neutral background and an opening through the outermost design and the neutral background forming an integral part of the outermost design through which a viewer may see the innermost design through the glass wall of the cylinder. The design is accomplished by printing on the circumference of the cylindrical glass object a scene or design in a reversed or mirror image of the scene to be viewed, then direct printing a background or overlay on top of the innermost scene or design and around the circumference except for an opening diametrically opposite the principal area of the innermost design. A second outermost design or scene is directly printed on top of the neutral background or overlay which scene or design incorporates the opening in the background as an integral element of the outermost scene or design. The designs and background are preferably made by using ceramic enamels directly printed on glass which are set by conventional firing methods.
While this prior art object and method have been generally accepted, it has been limited in clarity, detail and color because of the numerous passes that must be made over the surface of the cylinder to apply the various enamels that give extensive color and light to the design. Moreover, the process is expensive, taking quite some time to apply one by one the various colors to the tumbler surface in order to complete the design. Moreover, waste is often excessive in that any one misaligned pass of the application of enamel on the surface of the tumbler will ruin the product even though most of the enamel coats have been previously applied without error.
The concept is an interesting one and opens the market for a multitude of activity if highly credible and attractive designs can be applied to cylindrical glassware through a design that can result in three dimensional visual perception. It is to this need that the present application is directed.